Latter-day Saints infer from authoritative sources of
scripture and modern prophecy that there is a Heavenly Mother as
well as a Heavenly Father.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejects the
idea found in some religions that the spirits or souls of
individual human beings are created ex nihilo. Rather it accepts
literally the vital scriptural teaching as worded by Paul:
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we
are the children of God." This and other scriptures
underscore not only spiritual sibling relationships but heirship
with God, and a destiny of joint heirship with Christ (Rom.
8:16-18; cf. Mal. 2:10).

Latter-day Saints believe that all the people of earth who
lived or will live are actual spiritual offspring of God the
Eternal Father (Num. 16:22; Heb. 12:9). In this perspective,
parenthood requires both father and mother, whether for the
creation of spirits in the premortal life or of physical
tabernacles on earth. A Heavenly Mother shares parenthood with
the Heavenly Father. This concept leads Latter-day Saints to
believe that she is like him in glory, perfection, compassion,
wisdom, and holiness.

Elohim, the name-title for God, suggests the plural of the
Caananite El or the Hebrew Eloah. It is used in various Hebrew
combinations to describe the highest God. It is the majestic
title of the ultimate deity. Genesis 1:27 reads, "So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him,
male and female created he them" (emphasis added), which may
be read to mean that "God" is plural.

For Latter-day Saints, the concept of eternal family is more
than a firm belief; it governs their way of life. It is the
eternal plan of life, stretching from life before through life
beyond mortality.

As early as 1839 the Prophet Joseph Smith taught the concept
of an eternal mother, as reported in several accounts from that
period. Out of his teaching came a hymn that Latter-day Saints
learn, sing, quote, and cherish, "O My Father," by
Eliza R. Snow. President Wilford Woodruff called it a revelation
(Woodruff, p. 62).

In the heav'ns are parents single?

No, the thought makes reason stare!

Truth is reason; truth eternal

Tells me I've a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,

When I lay this mortal by,

Father, Mother, may I meet you

In your royal courts on high? [Hymn no. 292]

In 1909 the First Presidency, under Joseph F. Smith, issued a
statement on the origin of man that teaches that "man, as a
spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to
maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father," as an
"offspring of celestial parentage," and further teaches
that "all men and women are in the similitude of the
universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and
daughters of Deity" (Smith, pp. 199-205).

Belief that there is a Mother in Heaven who is a partner with
God in creation and procreation is not the same as the heavy
emphasis on Mariology in the Roman tradition.

Today the belief in a living Mother in Heaven is implicit in
Latter-day Saint thought. Though the scriptures contain only
hints, statements from presidents of the church over the years
indicate that human beings have a Heavenly Mother as well as a
Heavenly Father.

Implicit in the Christian verity that all men are
the spirit children of an Eternal Father is the usually unspoken
truth that they are also the offspring of an Eternal Mother. An
exalted and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a
Father unless a Woman of like glory, perfection, and holiness was
associated with him as a Mother. The begetting of children makes
a man a father and a woman a mother whether we are dealing with
man in his mortal or immortal state.

This doctrine that there is a Mother in Heaven
was affirmed in plainness by the First Presidency of the Church
(Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund) when, in
speaking of pre-existence and the origin of man, they said that
"man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly
parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the
Father," that man is the "offspring of celestial
parentage," and that "all men and women are in the
similitude of the universal Father and Mother and are literally
the sons and daughters of Deity." (Man: Origin and Destiny,
pp. 348-355.)

This glorious truth of celestial parentage,
including specifically both a Father and a Mother, is heralded
forth by song in one of the greatest of Latter-day Saint hymns. O
My Father by Eliza R. Snow, written in 1843, during the lifetime
of the Prophet, includes this teaching:

When I leave this frail existence, When I lay
this mortal by, Father, Mother, may I meet you In your royal
courts on high?

Then, at length, when I've completed All you sent
me forth to do, With your mutual approbation, Let me come and
dwell with you.

Mortal persons who overcome all things and gain
an ultimate exaltation will live eternally in the family unit and
have spirit children, thus becoming Eternal Fathers and Eternal
Mothers. (D. & C. 132:19-32.) Indeed, the formal
pronouncement of the Church, issued by the First Presidency and
the Council of the Twelve, states: "So far as the stages of
eternal progression and attainment have been made known through
divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and
glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring."
(Man: His Origin and Destiny, p. 129.)

Mormon Doctrine, p.517
Copyright by Bookcraft

by President
Lorenzo Snow

Women can become like our mother in
heaven. You sisters, I suppose, have read that poem
which my sister composed years ago, and which is sung quite
frequently now in our meetings. It tells us that we not only have
a Father in "that high and glorious place," but that we
have a Mother too; and you will become as great as your Mother,
if you are faithful." (Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, p.7-8,
emphasis in original)

We have a mother in heaven. We
are the offspring of God. He is our Father, and we have a Mother
in the other life as well. (Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, p.191,
emphasis in original)

by President
Joseph Fielding Smith

Question: "Will you please give us the
background of the 'theory' advanced of 'a Mother in Heaven'? Some
feel that God is great enough to create spirits without any
assistance, and if not, why then was not a Mother mentioned among
the Godhead?"

Answer: In answer to your question about a mother
in heaven, let us use reason. It may be true that the Bible does
not speak of a mother in heaven, nor does the D&C when
speaking of the revelations of the Lord to the Church. Permit me
to call attention to the fact that mothers and wives are seldom
mentioned in the Bible, although they are on certain occasions.
The fact that there is no reference to a mother in heaven either
in the Bible, Book of Mormon or D&C, is not sufficient proof
that no such thing as a mother did exist there. If we had a
Father, which we did, for all of these records speak of him, then
does not good common sense tell us that we must have had a mother
there also?

When we stop to think of it, there are passages
which strongly imply that we did have a mother there. Let me call
your attention to some passages of scripture. First, Paul
speaking to the Greeks on Mars Hill had this to say:

For in him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we
are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28)

JESUS HAD A FATHER AND A MOTHER

If we are his offspring, then how did we become
such, if we had no mother to give us spirit birth? We know that
Jesus had a Father and that he had a mother, for the scriptures
tell us so. Have you thought this passage through?

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not
much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and
live? (Hebrews 12:9)

It is my turn to ask a question. How can we be
the offspring of God, how can he be the Father of our spirits,
unless we had a mother and were born? The D&C states that we
are all begotten sons and daughters unto God.

For we saw him, even on the right hand of
God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the
Only Begotten of the Father--That by him, and through him,
and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the
inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.
(D&C 76:23-24)

Moreover, the D&C definitely teaches the
eternity of the marriage covenant and that those so married who
are faithful will have claim on each other in eternity. Their
children will belong to them, and they will have the gift of
"a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.
Then shall they be gods, because they have no end." (Ibid.,
132:19-20.) This great honor gives them the blessing of
"eternal lives," but to those who have to remain
separately they partake of "the deaths," because they
do not "continue," that is, have no posterity in
eternity. Now they will be blessed with the same blessings as
those held by our Eternal Father--eternal increase. (See Moses
1:39.)

In Genesis we read:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness: . . .So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
(Genesis 1:26-27)

Is it not feasible to believe that female spirits
were created in the image of a "Mother in Heaven"?

Answers to Gospel Questions, Vol. 3, p.144
Copyright by Deseret Book

by President
George Q. Cannon

"The Mormons believe that all men were born
in the spirit world of the union of the sexes, having a literal
father and a literal mother before coming to this world, that the
spirits are just the same in appearance as the body, that God is
a married Being, has a wife at least, as Jeremiah said the angels
were offering incense to the queen of heaven. The Latter-day
Saints believe that God is an exalted Man, and that we are the
offspring of Him and His wife. (April 15, 1884, Salt Lake
Herald)" (Gospel Truth, Vol. 1, p.129)

by Elder John A.
Widsoe

"In accordance with Gospel philosophy there
are males and females in heaven. Since we have a Father, who is
our God, we must also have a mother, who possesses the attributes
of Godhood. This simply carries onward the logic of things
earthly, and conforms with the doctrine that whatever is on this
earth is simply a representation of spiritual conditions of
deeper meaning than we can here fathom." (A Rational
Theology, p.69)